State, County Acknowledges the Hand That is Strangling Justice

[XLFD]

At the November 12, 2025 meeting of the Mason County Board of Commissioners the agenda packet revealed mostly routine and/or non-controversial items, and offered a public hearing for a $27.6 million brownfield project in PM Township that will add 144 1- and 2-bedroom workforce housing units between S Jebavy and the PM Highway and north of the tracks, south of Family Fare.  Left out of the discussions led by ecstatic county and township officials and project managers was the 23-year tax increment financing plan inside this that will cost the community $6 million extracted from our local taxing units, but you can find it in the packet starting on p. 295.

The reason this reporter was in attendance, however, was not to dwell on whether this benison to a private developer was a good use for public monies at the expense of everyone else.  That case could definitely be made following the nearly $5 million of the community's spent at the Lofts on Rowe project that features small rooms and big prices when it was sold as something much different to the people.  City and county officials basked in the afterglow of that construction of having accomplished something, but it turned out not to be a good something except those with a yawning blind spot.  

No, the reason I was there was to bring attention to another issue and that was the perception of the county prosecutor, Beth Hand (pictured below), by outside expert and professional sources.  The best thing was that I didn't even have to bring anyone in or just rely on hearsay or the vagaries of my own opinions, because the evidence was in their packets.  Ladies and gentlemen of the jury of commissioners, I present to you proof from your own packets in my comment:

XLFD:  "In a letter to Chair Anderson from Kristen Staley a neutral expert of the State's Indigence Defense Commission that all of you should read in its entirety, we see a note found on p. 380 of your packet in the official compliance plan and cost analysis that says:  "There is a relatively new elected Prosecutor in this jurisdiction and she has taken a very aggressive and inappropriate approach to prosecution. We have continued to see increases in the time spent on cases due to no or inappropriate offers being made. There have been and will be more hearings, including preliminary exams on most felony cases and many jury trials. In FY22 the prosecutor asked for a 30% increase in funding for her office due to expected additional costs. The defense amounts increased by the same rate in FY22 and we see that is still not enough to meet the current prosecutor's aggression. We have pending murder cases, among many other life offense cases. Most will go to trial and will need extensive work from the attorneys, second chair attorneys and experts." 

On page 381, we see twice:  "consistent request to deal with irrational prosecutor".  On page 384: "We are seeing more life offenses being filed with no offers being made, thus many high profile cases are going to trial. We have one pending with over $25,000 in expert fees. This case was called in April, but a jury could not be seated so it's pushed to October. We have multiple homicide cases pending. We are currently underfunded due to the new prosecutor's stance."

This is an expert in her field, and if you are skeptical of her expert opinions of cost analysis, see whether you can talk with as many of the 15 public defenders listed in confidence and listen to what they will say.  Prosecutor Hand came to your last meeting and asked for more money to continue her inquisitions by adding a clerk, LPD Chief Jones spoke in support of that expense. 

These two imports from far away have shown that their primary goal is to incarcerate as many Mason County residents as possible, their innocence of any crimes mean nothing; I have seen this play out with many people by regularly going to court and seeing good, guiltless people persecuted by your prosecutor.  

And I have experienced it firsthand... [END Comment]

The letter heading (above) gives no indication of what's to come, but when an expert evaluator from a state agency repeatedly uses terms like irrational, aggressive and inappropriate as objective descriptions of Beth Hand, a fellow professional, something is askew in Auschwitz.  

Since the commissioners would call a closed session to discuss collective bargaining with their union employees before their second comment, I decided to spare telling them about the irrational, aggressive, and inappropriate actions of the prosecutor against me-- for now.  By their next meeting in December, I may have a couple more judicial dismissals of charges, maybe another baseless arraignment against me.  Unfortunately, other innocent people are being charged irrationally, aggressively, and inappropriately, and it won't change unless and until someone bells the hissing cat.

Kudos to the county commissioners representing the city, Les Johnson and Nick Krieger, for at least acknowledging some issues in a very general sense before approving the state grant to help provide legal counsel to indigent folks to defend against this aggression.  As I noted in my comment, if these attorneys were allowed to speak freely and anonymously, the more professional of them would use the same language as the state expert to describe Beth Hand.  

[Freedom Seeker]

Excellent report, X, and great news on the off-rail excessive aggressiveness of Beth Hand. Glad to hear the kudos to the Commission.

144 housing south of Shop N Save ... yeah better taxation than Rowe Lofts.

Thanks for your sharing your comprehensive insight.

[Ashley]

Important discussion. It’s troubling to see how justice can be compromised, especially when local and state powers are involved. On a different note, students stress over their workload too—and some look for assignment writing services on platforms like myassignmenthelp to support their academic journey.

[Anna Auer]

I agree… at least Johnson and Krieger were willing to say something before closing the legal aid deal. If the lawyers had been allowed to speak honestly and anonymously, they would have described Beth Hand exactly as the state’s expert did. I was so stressed after reading this that I had to play a few rounds of drift boss to calm my nerves before I could come back and continue following the story.

[Lily Johnson]

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